LONDON, Dec. 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The past 2-3 years have witnessed an increasing interest in smart grids and smart energy. Smart grids are seen as key to addressing the intensifying demand for high-quality power and greater energy-efficiency.

Smart meters are considered to be the first step towards smart grid implementation. The smart meter rollout in Europe is well underway, boosted by the European Union legislation to achieve 80 per cent coverage by 2020. Sweden and Italy had full scale penetration in 2010, while Finland, Norway, and Denmark are likely to achieve their targets by 2016.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan (http://www.energy.frost.com), Smart Grids in Europe – Identification of Key Growth Opportunities, identifies five of the fastest-growing sectors within the European smart grid market including advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), integration of distributed generation, sensors and advanced transmission technologies and electric vehicles.

"The success of the smart meter rollout in Europe is largely due to the regulatory push," noted Frost & Sullivan Energy & Power Supplies Research Manager Malavika Tohani. "Smart grids are integral to achieve the EU 20-20-20 targets – 20% increase in energy efficiency, 20% reduction of CO2 emissions and 20% renewables – by 2020."

However, uncertainty regarding financing, lack of incentives for distribution system operators (DSOs) and consumers, issues regarding information security, interoperability and absence of concrete regulations and legislations are some of the restraints hindering smart grid growth.

"Particularly with regards to integration of distributed generation, there is a lack of clarity on who will bear the costs of connection and to which stakeholders the benefits will accrue," remarked Tohani. "In terms of demand response, uptake in Europe is slow due to limited awareness about the level of financial benefit that households will enjoy against the cost that they must bear in terms of expenditure on devices such as energy monitors and smart thermostats."

Clear standards and legislations need to be put in place to tackle issues regarding interoperability and cost sharing. Moreover, consumers need to be educated on the demand response methods as well as given sufficient rewards for saving energy.

"Concerns related to information theft have hampered smart meter rollout in the past in the Netherlands and are currently slowing down the pace of rollout in Germany," concluded Tohani. "Advances in software and technology to protect consumer information, together with proper privacy laws to prevent data theft, will be critical to overcoming this challenge."

If you are interested in more information on this study, please send an e-mail with your contact details to Chiara Carella, Corporate Communications, at chiara.carella@frost.com.

Smart Grids in Europe – Identification of Key Growth Opportunities is part of the Energy & Power Growth Partnership Service programme, which also includes research in the following markets: European Smart Meter Market, European Substation Automation and Impact of Smart Grid, APAC Advanced Metering Infrastructure Market and, Global Smart Grid Market. All research included in subscriptions provide detailed market opportunities and industry trends that have been evaluated following extensive interviews with market participants.

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, works in collaboration with clients to leverage visionary innovation that addresses the global challenges and related growth opportunities that will make or break today's market participants.

The Integrated Value Proposition provides support to our clients throughout all phases of their journey to visionary innovation including: research, analysis, strategy, vision, innovation and implementation.

The Partnership Infrastructure is entirely unique as it constructs the foundation upon which visionary innovation becomes possible. This includes our 360 degree research, comprehensive industry coverage, career best practices as well as our global footprint of more than 40 offices.

For more than 50 years, we have been developing growth strategies for the global 1000, emerging businesses, the public sector and the investment community. Is your organisation prepared for the next profound wave of industry convergence, disruptive technologies, increasing competitive intensity, Mega Trends, breakthrough best practices, changing customer dynamics and emerging economies?

In his keynote at 18th Cloud Expo, Andrew Keys, Co-Founder of ConsenSys Enterprise, provided an overview of the evolution of the Internet and the Database and the future of their combination – the Blockchain. Andrew Keys is Co-Founder of ConsenSys Enterprise. He comes to ConsenSy...

Blockchain. A day doesn’t seem to go by without seeing articles and discussions about the technology. According to PwC executive Seamus Cushley, approximately $1.4B has been invested in blockchain just last year. In Gartner’s recent hype cycle for emerging technologies, blockchai...

DevOps is under attack because developers don’t want to mess with infrastructure. They will happily own their code into production, but want to use platforms instead of raw automation. That’s changing the landscape that we understand as DevOps with both architecture concepts (Clo...

The need for greater agility and scalability necessitated the digital transformation in the form of following equation: monolithic to microservices to serverless architecture (FaaS). To keep up with the cut-throat competition, the organisations need to update their technology sta...

Product connectivity goes hand and hand these days with increased use of personal data. New IoT devices are becoming more personalized than ever before.
In his session at 22nd Cloud Expo | DXWorld Expo, Nicolas Fierro, CEO of MIMIR Blockchain Solutions, will discuss how in orde...